Black bean burger with sweet potato wedges

I've been obsessed with the vegetarian burger for as long as I can remember. I think it's something about being a vegetarian and STILL getting to enjoy the burger. I get so tired of running out of options at places. Besides, vegetarian burgers are genuinely amazing, and shouldn't have to resort to second tier standing. After my standard research on foodgawker, I settled on a delicious looking black bean burger recipe at http://www.keepitsimplefoods.com/vegetarian/spicy-black-bean-burgers/

The process was somewhat time consuming, and I think I made way more than I needed to, but it was fun anyway. I initially found the batter to be too runny. I ended up adding more bread crumbs, and also some flour in the mixture, and that seemed to have solved the problem. The trick was also replacing the egg with the egg replacer. I'm not typically the biggest fan of the egg replacer but it worked rather well here.

And here's the how:

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 yellow bell pepper

1 medium onion

3 cloves garlic

1 Ener G egg replacer

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

handful of cilantro

1 cup breakcrumps

hot sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

Burger buns 

Directions:

1. Process the bell pepper, onion and garlic in the food processor. 

2. In a mixing bowl, mash up the black beans and add the bell pepper mixture to the black beans. 

3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the egg replacer, cumin, onion powder, chili powder and cilantro. Add this to the black bean mixture. 

4. Depending on the consistency of the mixture, add in flour/ bread crumbs. Shape the mixture into burger patties. 
5. Heat oil in a skillet. Place them on the skillet and cook until cooked evenly. 

To accompany the burger, I also made sweet potato fries. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I LOVE sweet potato, and sweet potato fries hardly ever disappoint. I also wanted to try baking them instead of deep frying them, and this recipe at Smittenkitchen was exactly what I craved:

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet potato

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil, or enough to coat all the sweet potato evenly

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 425 F. In a coffee grinder, create a spice mixture from all the spices listed above. 

2. Cut the sweet potatoes lengthwise to make thick wedges. 

3. Toss the wedges in the oil and the spice mixture. Bake for around 20 minutes until the sweet potatoes are golden. Bake for another 15-20 minutes after turning the wedges over.